Developers outline phased plan to convert Severance mall into mixed-use town center

Developers with Impact Collective and a property owner partner told the Cleveland Heights City Council on Aug. 4 they intend to redevelop the Severance mall site into a walkable, mixed-use town center over many years. Ryan Porter, a principal with Impact Collective, said the team formed a joint venture with Namdar, the current property owner, and has been working under an approximately 20-month agreement to prepare concept plans and a regulatory framework. “We are targeting completion or just completed our initial concept plans for the site,” Porter said. “We're looking to get our zoning and all the tax abatement structures and everything, the NCA, which is gonna govern the site in place, hopefully, by the end of this year.” Porter and partner James Veil described the plan as phased. The northeast quadrant—where the former Walmart and movie theater sit—would be first, followed by infill that creates a new “main street” spine linking the site to City Hall and, later, areas near the existing hospital and medical uses. Porter said the first phase aims to include mixed-use buildings with ground-floor retail and a corner hotel “because it wants visibility, obviously, on Mayfield.” Veil summarized how an optional form-based overlay would regulate physical form along new streets, controlling sidewalk frontage, building placement and retail frontages rather than relying solely on conventional use-based zoning. “With a form based zone, you're really focused on looking at the physical form of a building as it fronts on a street,” Veil said, describing the code's typical elements: furnishing zone, pedestrian clearway and transition zone. Porter provided high-level numbers for the full site concept: roughly 150,000–250,000 square feet of retail, 50,000–100,000 square feet of medical/office space, 150–250 hotel keys across the entire zoning area and some light industrial space. He said the team’s housing study estimates absorption of about 100 units per year and that the team expects noticeable change within three to five years of starting construction in the first quadrant. “This will be done in a lot of phases,” Porter said. The presenters said they are meeting regularly with city staff on code text, infrastructure and interim site issues, and are conducting community engagement through meetings and a crowdsourcing website, severanceclevelandheights.com, where residents can propose and vote on potential uses. No formal council vote or zoning application was before the council on Aug. 4; the presentation was an update. Porter left a target schedule of finalizing the regulating plan and code text this year, creating a communities authority to govern the long-term site and pursuing the tax and zoning actions needed to permit phased construction. Council members asked about the zoning timeline and expressed general support; Porter reiterated the team’s target of finishing zoning work by year-end and beginning vertical construction in 2026.